Sunday, September 02, 2007

The Life of the
Industrial Worker in Nineteenth-Century England: In 1832 Michael Sadler secured a parliamentary investigation of conditions in
the textile factories and he sat as chairman on the committee. The evidence
printed here is taken from the large body published in the committee's report
and is representative rather than exceptional. It will be observed that the
questions are frequently leading; this reflects Sadler's knowledge of the sort
of information that the committee were to hear and his purpose of bringing it
out. This report stands out as one of [the] great reports on the life of the
industrial class... The immediate effect of the
investigation and the report was the passage of the Act of 1833 limiting hours
of employment for women and children in textile work.

Joshua Drake, called in; and Examined.

You say you would prefer moderate labour and lower wages; are you pretty
comfortable upon your present wages? --I have no wages, but two days a week at
present; but when I am working at some jobs we can make a little, and at others
we do very poorly.

When a child gets 3s. a
week, does that go much towards its subsistence? --No, it will not keep it as it
should do.

When they got 6s. or 7s. when they were pieceners, if they reduced the hours
of labor, would they not get less? — They would get a halfpenny a day less, but
I would rather have less wages and less work.

Do you receive any parish assistance? — No.

Why do you allow your children to go to work at those places where they are
ill-treated or over-worked? — Necessity compels a man that has children to let
them work.

Then you would not allow your children to go to those factories under the
present system, if it was not from necessity? — No.

Supposing there was a law passed to limit the hours of labour to eight hours
a day, or something of that sort, of course you are aware that a manufacturer
could not afford to pay them the same wages? — No, I do not suppose that they
would, but at the same time I would rather have it, and I believe that it would
bring me into employ; and if I lost 5d. a day from my children's work, and I got
half-a-crown myself, it would be better.

How would it get you into employ? — By finding more employment at the
machines, and work being more regularly spread abroad, and divided amongst the
people at large. One man is now regularly turned off into the street, whilst
another man is running day and night.

You mean to say, that if the manufacturers were to limit the hours of labour,
they would employ more people? — Yes.

Mr. Matthew Crabtree, called in; and Examined.

What age are you? — Twenty-two.

What is your occupation? — A blanket manufacturer.

Have you ever been employed in a factory? — Yes.

At what age did you first go to work in one? — Eight.

How long did you continue in that occupation? — Four years.

Will you state the hours of labour at the period when you first went to the
factory, in ordinary times? — From 6 in the morning to 8 at night.

Fourteen hours? — Yes.

With what intervals for refreshment and rest? — An hour at noon.

When trade was brisk what were your hours? — From 5 in the morning to 9 in
the evening.

Sixteen hours? — Yes.

With what intervals at dinner? — An hour.

How far did you live from the mill? — About two miles.

Was there any time allowed for you to get your breakfast in the mill? — No.

Did you take it before you left your home? — Generally.

During those long hours of labour could you be punctual; how did you awake? —
I seldom did awake spontaneously; I was most generally awoke or lifted out of
bed, sometimes asleep, by my parents.

Were you always in time? — No.

What was the consequence if you had been too late? — I was most commonly
beaten.

Severely? — Very severely, I thought.

In those mills is chastisement towards the latter part of the day going on
perpetually? — Perpetually.

So that you can hardly be in a mill without hearing constant crying? — Never
an hour, I believe.

Do you think that if the overlooker were naturally a humane person it would
still be found necessary for him to beat the children, in order to keep up their
attention and vigilance at the termination of those extraordinary days of labour?
— Yes; the machine turns off a regular quantity of cardings, and of course, they
must keep as regularly to their work the whole of the day; they must keep with
the machine, and therefore however humane the slubber may be, as he must keep up
with the machine or be found fault with, he spurs the children to keep up also
by various means but that which he commonly resorts to is to strap them when
they become drowsy.

At the time when you were beaten for not keeping up with your work, were you
anxious to have done it if you possibly could? — Yes; the dread of being beaten
if we could not keep up with our work was a sufficient impulse to keep us to it
if we could.

When you got home at night after this labour, did you feel much fatigued? —
Very much so.

Had you any time to be with your parents, and to receive instruction from
them? — No.

What did you do? — All that we did when we got home was to get the little bit
of supper that was provided for us and go to bed immediately. If the supper had
not been ready directly, we should have gone to sleep while it was preparing.

Did you not, as a child, feel it a very grievous hardship to be roused so
soon in the morning? — I did.

Were the rest of the children similarly circumstanced? — Yes, all of them;
but they were not all of them so far from their work as I was.

And if you had been too late you were under the apprehension of being cruelly
beaten? — I generally was beaten when I happened to be too late; and when I got
up in the morning the apprehension of that was so great, that I used to run, and
cry all the way as I went to the mill. ...

Mr Cobbett said, a new discovery had been made in the House that night, which
would doubtless excite great astonishment in many parts; at all events it would
in Lancashire.
It had formerly been said that the Navy was the great support of England; at
another time that our maritime commerce was the great bulwark of the country; at
another time that our colonies; and it had even been whispered that the Bank
was; but now it was admitted, that our great stay and bulwark was to be found in
three hundred thousand little girls, or rather in one eighth of that number.
Yes; for it was asserted, that if these little girls worked two hours less per
day, our manufacturing superiority would depart from us. ...

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The Sadler Committee Report of 1832

Life of industrial workers in the early 1800s:

The Life of the
Industrial Worker in Nineteenth-Century England: In 1832 Michael Sadler secured a parliamentary investigation of conditions in
the textile factories and he sat as chairman on the committee. The evidence
printed here is taken from the large body published in the committee's report
and is representative rather than exceptional. It will be observed that the
questions are frequently leading; this reflects Sadler's knowledge of the sort
of information that the committee were to hear and his purpose of bringing it
out. This report stands out as one of [the] great reports on the life of the
industrial class... The immediate effect of the
investigation and the report was the passage of the Act of 1833 limiting hours
of employment for women and children in textile work.